


A day in the life of Soldier: 76

by HappyLeech



Series: Noodleverse [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (kinda), Character Study, Gen, Jack Morrison is a GIANT NERD, Noodle Dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 22:11:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10522929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech
Summary: (Or: How Old Man Morrison became friends with a dragon)Soldier 76 has a daily routine, and he tries to stick to it. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't go smoothly all the time.





	

  * Waking up.



If there was one thing people knew about Jack Morrison, and, by association Soldier: 76, it was that he was punctual. He always had his alarm set and was, by nature, one of the first people awake and up in the watchpoint no matter what time he’d crawled into bed the night before.

Then the elder Shimada had arrived. 

Now, Jack didn't dislike the man—he was pleasant enough to work with and, when they talked, their conversations were fine. On the other hand, though, there were his dragons. They were friendly and personable, more so than Soba, Genji’s dragon, even when they were misbehaving.

(Being up at 3 am because of the pair of them, a dog toy, and the air vents was not Jacks idea of a great time)

But, ever since the last team bonding night—Reinhardt and his love for the Indiana Jones movies—Jack found himself waking daily with a new bedfellow.

The first time he woke up with one of the dragons draped across his chest, Jack woke late, his alarm mysteriously turned off, on the floor, and on the other side of the room. His garbled swearing was then interrupted when something wet pressed itself against his cheek, before huffing and laying back down. And his eyesight might be bad, but there was no mistaking the blue of one of Hanzo’s dragons.

(Shimada nearly looked apologetic when the chirping beast was passed back, but Jack didn't care. He'd slept in by nearly three hours, and Ana was going to make fun of him for it.)

The second time Jack awoke to a dragon, it was about three hours before his alarm was due to go off. A nightmare about pointed claws driving into his chest and a stench of death made him gasp awake, panic lodged in his throat as the pinpricks on his chest didn't recede. They were, however, accompanied by more comforting things, questioning chirps and a wet nose pressed against his wrist. After a few tense moments, trying to get his breathing back under control and his heart to stop pounding, he fell back asleep.

He didn't have that nightmare again.

(He did, however, sleep in again that day, but Jack didn’t mention the nightmare when he passed over the errant serpent.)

By the third time Jack woke up to a dragon on his chest, he accepted it was just the way things were going to be from then on.

This time there was no mangled alarm clock, no nightmares of friends long gone. Instead, his alarm went off like it was supposed to, and it was only the heat from the small body curled up on his chest that kept him from rolling out of bed. So, instead, he laid there, staring down at the snoring, and he couldn’t believe that they snored, dragon for a good five minutes before slowly sliding it off of his chest and onto the bed.

(Not that the dragon stayed there, of course. But at least he was up early enough that Ana wasn’t awake to hear him swearing when the beast tried to join him in the shower.)

* * *

  * Breakfast



Breakfasts at the watchpoint weren’t as big of a deal as the other meals. Simple meals, usually toast or cereal or fruit was all that was on the menu, and Jack didn’t mind. He’d never eaten a lot for breakfast anyways in the past, not to mention that he ate even less when he was running around in between the times of Overwatch and New Overwatch. Ana, being one of four people to know who he was, however, didn’t find that to her liking, and he found himself eating breakfast with her in one of the dinner rooms.

But, of course, once Shimada the elder arrived, that changed.

Now his breakfasts consisted of passing over the dragon—Umi, female, likes textiles and Hanzo and him, for some reason—back to her master, before grabbing a plate, an orange, and a slice of rye bread. Then he joined Ana, where she’d gathered his coffee and her tea, and they would talk and eat and ignore the three messages that Angela sent him, “purely out of worry, Jack!”.

“You should sit down with her one of these days, Jack. Maybe then she’ll stop pestering you, and then we can eat like sensible people,” Ana said, but he shook his head.

“Knowing her, I’d walk in and Winston would be there too, and they’d team up to try and get me to a) reveal myself and b) take over command of this place. And there’s no way in hell I’m doing that,” he replied, taking a bite of his toast and shooing away the tiny claws reaching for his orange. “Plus, Angela is going to want to know details of how I escaped the blast in one piece, and I don’t want to talk about that. Does Hanzo know you’re in here?”

Ana started, staring at him for a second before a noise drew her attention to his lap. “I don’t think Umi cares, I think she just wants some of your orange. Come on now, don’t be a monster, give her some!” she said, before doing a poor job of hiding her smile behind her teacup.

And that was how he found himself changing his breakfast to accommodate for a thieving dragon, adding an extra orange and a dish of water for the pest once Jack, and Hanzo, realized that Umi was going to be tagging along most mornings.

That also meant that he got a lecture from the younger man on what the dragons could and could not eat.

“Kawa will do anything for radishes, but he doesn’t have a taste for citrus fruits,” he started, glossing over details about the male of the pair who visited occasionally but didn’t hang around long like Umi. “They both hate spicy, so if she wants something of yours, sometimes making it nearly unbearable is the only way to keep her out of it.”

“Joy,” Jack interrupted, trying to ignore how the dragon was climbing up his leg, again, trying to reach his shoulder so she could launch herself off of him and onto Hanzo. “So, what. I’ll have to ask Hana if I can borrow her seasonings just so I can eat breakfast now?”

He made a face behind his mask at the idea of covering his rye toast with butter in Hana’s gochujang just to keep the small menace away. Hanzo also made a face and shook his head.

“I’d be more worried if she was after your toast, but all she seems to want is your orange, so you should be safe. Besides, most of the Korean seasonings in the kitchens are very strong—I think they’d be more effective keeping you away from your food.”

And so, breakfast with Ana became breakfast with Ana and Umi, one orange became two oranges and a lime, and he started drinking his coffee without milk because, while Hanzo didn’t go into specifics, he warned that it was not pretty when Umi got into dairy products.

* * *

  * Practice Range



One thing that Jack had missed in the time between Overwatch and the New Overwatch was the access to Watchpoint practice ranges. From simulated missions to fabricated city streets to navigate, to simple firing ranges, there was everything the agents stationed there needed to keep their skills in top notch shape.

And Jack appreciated it. Even with the visor which focused his vision, added an auto-target system, and kept him alive, he still needed to keep his practice up, just in case. Which was why he was starting his 9th shooting simulation of the day, trying to be just a little faster than his fastest recorded time. Made harder, however, by the weight on his shoulders who made displeased noises every time he swung the rifle up and around, following the targets.

With another dismal time—he was nearly twenty seconds slower than his 5th best—he sighed and gave up.

“What do you want?” he asked the dragon, who, now that he wasn’t trying to shoot anything, appeared to be trying to crawl down the back of his jacket and into his shirt. “Hey, stop that!”

And, of course, that was what Hana walked in on, him wrestling Umi out of his shirt and trying to keep the cursing down so Athena didn’t call anyone in.

“Hey, mind if I steal her for a bit?” Hana asked, grinning as she none to stealthily put her phone away, having taken a photo that Jack was sure he’d regret. “Me and Hanzo have a video to film and we need her. Unless you also want to be in the vid?”

“No thank you. Please, take her, I’m trying to get some work in,” Jack grunted, finally managing to get a hold of Umi so Hana could grab her. “ _Thank you_.”

“No problem, Jack. Are we still on for Wednesday’s stream? Unless you’re too chicken?” she asked, before backpedaling as he pointed at her.

“You wish. You’re going down, Song.”

Once she was gone, taking the noodle, as Hana called the dragons, with her, Jack sighed, stretched, and started the program again. He was going to take all the time he could to get some practice in.

Not that he stayed alone for long.

Probably 15 minutes after Hana left with Umi, he could feel pinpricks through his pants leg as the dragon pulled herself up, heading for his shoulder with a determination that would have been funny if not for the fact that Jack was trying to _do_ something.

“Seriously?” he asked no one, before sighing and canceling out of the simulation again. “Why are you clinging to me so much?”

“Trust me, I wish I knew as well,” a voice from behind said, and Jack sighed as Hanzo and Hana walked in, Hana chattering to her camera even as she focused in on him.

“—and, for some reason, Umi thinks that 76 is just the greatest person there is. Say hi, 76.”

“Hi, 76,” he said to the camera, rolling his eyes as Hana huffed at him. “I guess I’ll be joining your video, whatever it’s about. Umi doesn’t think I need to get any practice in, it seems.”

Hana cheered at that, turning the camera back to her face as she bounced in place, rapid Korean taking over the English as she waited for Jack to get ready, Kawa pressed up against her cheek making faces.

“Trust me, at least she’s only on your shoulder,” Hanzo said quietly as he helped Jack clean the shooting range up. “When I was younger, both of them would wind themselves around my wrist when I was trying to shoot. Father—I would always end up pulling to the left when they did that.”

Jack winced behind his mask. “That sounds unpleasant,” was all he said though, storing his gun away in one of the lockers. There was really no need to go back to his room with it first—he could pick it up afterward.

Hanzo nearly smiled at that, something Jack wasn’t sure ever happened, and shook his head. “It was. They were in the biting stage too then. Harder to aim when somethings nibbling at your wrist.”

Well, that was one thing Jack was glad he didn’t have to experience. “How did you get them to leave you alone?” he asked, hoping that there was a trick he could use.

This time Hanzo laughed, and even Hana paused her chatter to listen in. “You don’t. You just learn to shoot with two biting dragons on your wrist. But I’m sure something or someone else will catch her attention, and you’ll be left in peace to shoot. Eventually.”

“Eventually,” Jack repeated, hoping that would happen sooner rather than later.

* * *

  * Lunch



Lunch was a bit of a bigger deal in the Watchpoint than breakfast. There was a roster, those who would make food for those who were interested in eating at the time, and Jack was, luckily, one of the people left off the roster.

When Hana had asked him about that, he’s shrugged. “I’ve got it on good authority that unless I’m baking, I shouldn’t be in the kitchen. You need a pie made or seven loaves of bread, sure. Need me to make a soup from scratch or, hell, even from the can and you’re at risk of food poisoning.”

She had only shaken her head at him in amazement, or possibly disbelief before she promptly trounced his war-hungry scouts in Civ 9 to the delight of her fans and the dismay of the ones cheering him on.

He didn’t, however, eat lunch, something he was sure sent Angela into silent fits of misery and made Ana sigh like he was an errant child. Instead, he’d sit with Hana or Ana while they ate, listening to conversations and deflecting prying questions from the others.

Currently, Hana was laughing at him as he sat there, the same table as her, Genji, Zenyatta, and Hanzo, with both dragons clinging to his face mask. He didn’t even need the confirmation to know that the pair of them were frustrated that they couldn’t peel the mask off, no matter how far they dug their claws into the frame or how loudly they chattered at him.

“Why,” he said, not expecting an answer but hoping for maybe a little help. From what little Jack could see, however, showed that Hanzo was taking the chance to eat without dragon interference and that Jack was on his own.

“You’re lucky Soba is so anti-social, 76.” Genji said, leaning all his weight against Hana who was still laughing, but also trying to record the entire event. “For I fear she’d join her siblings in trying to crack open your shell.”

“If your dragon starts harassing me too, Shimada, I’m just going to give up and become a grumpy jungle-gym. Walls and doors don’t seem to stop one from bothering me, so I doubt all three of them at once would be deterred by much of anything.” He said as dryly as he could, trying to not wince as more than one claw broke skin.

Thankfully, Zenyatta was there to look out for him, and Jack nearly sighed when the omnic pulled both dragons off of his head, switching them for one of his healing orbs which Jack held in his lap. He didn’t know how they worked and, honestly, he didn’t care. Jack was just glad he had options so he didn’t have to deal with Angela and her questions and the tears that usually fell when she managed to get him alone.

“Oh my god, that would be so cute! Genjiiiiiii why doesn’t Soba like meeeeee,” Hana whined, pushing back against the cyborg with only minimal success. “I wanna take a cute video of her too!”

If any of them noticed how Hanzo stilled, they didn’t say anything.

“Then hang around me and Master more often, Hana. She’s always climbing on him. If 76 is the grumpy dragon jungle-gym, Zenyatta is the cheerful one.”

That, of course, made Hana spin and point at Jack, an almost dangerous gleam in her eyes. “I want video of both of you covered in dragons. I need a video with all three of them.”

And Jack got the feeling that, somehow, she was going to get that video.

* * *

  * Avoiding Angela and Winston



Even before he was just 76 to everyone, Jack had a bad habit of avoiding the blonde Swiss doctor. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, but rather that he and hospitals were not friends, and she always seemed to want to pull him into the infirmary for something or other. Her mother-henning seemed to have gotten worse in between the explosion and when he joined up again, and she was always trying to pull him aside for a quick word, a question, a checkup.

Winston was also proving to be as big of a pest as Angela was, because while he had taken to commanding the new Overwatch forces well enough, Jack could tell that he was just bursting at the seams to drag Jack up in front of everyone and make him take over.

So, between the two of them, the hours after lunch and before dinner were dangerous for Jack. Neither of them had anything on their schedules at that time, and unless he was going to be busy playing games with Hana, something Ana took great pleasure teasing him about once she found his fan page, he was in danger of being tackled by either of them and asked nine hundred questions.

Winston at least was easier to avoid, his footsteps so loud that Jack could hear him a mile away and take the necessary actions to hide, but Angela was nearly silent when she put her mind to it, meaning that he found himself cornered more often than not.

At the moment, Jack was regretting leaving his room after lunch, his back pressed up against the wall of one of the corridors that no one used, which is why he used it and obviously why Angela had been waiting for him there. He’d been on the hunt for Hanzo to try and pass off Umi to him, but instead… 

“Jack, you’ve been avoiding me. We need to talk, please,” she said, politely ignoring how he was looking around her for an exit and the dragon wrapped around his neck that was watching her. “I haven’t had a chance to look over you, and I need to talk to you about what happened…and I know Winston urgently needs to speak with you too.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Angela. Ana’s already looked me over, and she said I’m good to go. Besides, you’re busy with everyone else. There’s no need to worry about me. I can take care of myself. And I don’t really see the need to bring up old scars unless you’re worried that Winston’s going to somehow cause the Swiss base 2.0,” Jack replied, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice. He’d already told the pair of them everything that needed to be said. “And I know Winston want’s me to take some kind of command position, but it’s not going to happen.”

Angela sighed, before pulling something out of her coat pocket. “If you don’t come with me, I’ll be dragging your body back to the infirmary with or without Winston’s help, once Hana stops distracting him for you.”

“…Goddamnit, Angela. Are you and Winston really so intent on picking at old wounds like this? What do you think it’ll do for you?” Jack snapped, pushing past her as Umi hissed. “I’ll open my mouth and everything will be good again? I’ll go wait in the goddamn infirmary for you, but if anyone else shows up, I’m out.”

“Jack—“ she started to reply, holding up what was in her hand. “It’s just a pen, Jack. Did you really think I’d drug you?” Angela almost sounded disappointed, but he didn’t care.

“I don’t know, Angela. I’m still half expecting Reinhardt to pop out of a doorway to hit me over the head with his hammer so you all can sit me down and have a conversation at me.” He said, crossing his arms as he continued to edge past her. “So, which one are you using? Floor G or F?”

“Floor F. I’ll see you there.”

* * *

  * Dinner



Dinner was in the same vein as the lunch rush, with the exception that Jack actually ate dinner. Ana, once again, was usually in the dining room before him with their drinks and her own meal, and it was only after closing the door and sitting down that he noticed the dragon sitting in the middle of the table.

“So, Angela said she finally was able to talk to you the other day,” Ana said, watching as he tried to find a spot to put his bowl where Umi wasn’t going to stick her head in it.

“Do we have to talk about that right now? I just want to eat…whatever this is. I wasn’t paying attention when Hana passed it to me…” Needle-sharp claws dug into his chest as the dragon stretched up to try and stick her snout into the bowl. “Stop that. Go bother Hanzo for once and let me eat in peace.”

Umi however didn’t seem to listen or care, because Jack was sure that she did know English and Japanese at least, and instead pressed her snout against his wrist and made a series of very sad sounds when he didn’t lower to bowl.

“Just take your mask off and eat, Jack. It’s got a little bit of a kick to it, so I doubt she’ll eat much of it, if any,” Ana advised. “She barely took one look at mine before she decided it wasn’t for her.”

True to Ana’s words, when Jack set the bowl down, Umi stuck her nose in before recoiling, huffing with displeasure. Jack soon followed suit after taking off his mask and trying a bite.

Once he finished coughing, and his glass of water, he looked up at Ana who wasn’t even trying to hide her amusement. “You didn’t warn me it was spicy,” he hissed, glaring at her over the bowl. “What the hell Ana, you know I can’t handle spicy foods.”

“I told you it had a kick to it, didn’t I? Now, are you going to make your strategy partner upset by not eating her food, or are you going to take some antacids and another glass of water and eat up?”

In the end, it took Jack four glasses of water, a bottle of the strongest heartburn medication Ana had on her, and Hana knocking on the door to ask who was choking to death before he finished eating. By that time everyone had left to do the rest of their nightly rituals, meaning that Umi was finally gone from his lap and he could have some time to himself.

Admittedly, it was to do whatever exercises he’d meant to do before Hana’d pulled him away for another hour or two of Civilization 9, but it was still nice. He’d been running through a more simplified and shorter version of his personal workout routine, because if there was one thing he learned early on it was that magic dragon creatures didn’t ask before jumping onto him in the middle of a set, and that was a good way to startle and hurt himself.

“Finally! I’ve been waiting for, like, hours, 76,” Hana said, standing from her spot on one of the benches when he opened the door, mask secured back on his face. “It’s your turn for dishes, so I figured I’d give the local ol’ fart a hand since you took _forever_ to eat.”

“That’s ‘Sir’ to you,” he snapped back, and she grinned at him, easily hearing the smile in his voice. “Were you trying to kill me, by the way? I thought I was going to die while I was eating, it was so spicy. You aren’t trying to off me so I can’t continue the destruction I’ve got planned for the Kingdom of Korea?”

“ _Puh-lease_! I’ve got a plan that’s going to topple the Monaco Empire and send you crying to…uh…Ana, I guess.” Hana shot back, pushing open the kitchen door to a truly impressive number of dishes.

“…Jesse skipped out on dish duty at lunch, I see.” Jack muttered, setting his dishes to the side. “And what do I tell her if that happens? Boo hoo Ana-- a 19-year-old tactical genius beat me at video games and I need to leave Overwatch forever?”

“Oh, shut up!”

* * *

  * Going to bed



Getting to sleep was not quite the same ordeal as waking up was. For one, there was usually no dragon making a pest of herself while he washed up and got his things sorted, which made a difference. Tasks that would normally take only 20 minutes for him would take upwards of an hour if the dragon was in the room too.

His jacket ended up on the hook by the door, mask on the desk, and everything else in a pile by the dresser. If Angela was to come in, Jack was sure that he’d get scolded, but he honestly didn’t care. Maybe once upon a time he’d have cared too, but it wasn’t like he had to deal with surprise room inspections.

Instead, Jack set his alarm, one that was probably not going to be used, and fell into bed.

The next night, he would put his mask up higher and put his jacket in his dresser in the hopes that he wouldn’t have to message Ana, Hana, and Hanzo to recruit them into finding where a misbehaving pair of dragons would have hidden his gear.

**Author's Note:**

> I should be writing the Hanzo piece that fits in this universe, but instead I wrote this. Oh Well :P
> 
> * * *
> 
> Jack and Hana are friends. This is also a fic in progress.  
> Jack and Hanzo are kind of friends.  
> Jack and Ana are friends. Jack doesn't make friends unless they have similar names  
> Jack 90000000% Does Not want to take any form of command again ever, and he doesn't want just any/everyone to know who he is. As of this fic, Ana, Hana, Angela, and Winston know who Jack is. Umi knows as well, but she's not telling Hanzo (or he just doesn't care)  
> Genji's dragon is Soba and Soba Bites People. She likes Genji, Zenyatta, and Hanzo's dragons  
> Hanzo's dragons are Umi and Kawa. They like everyone, but Kawa adores McCree and Hana and Umi adores Jack and Hana  
> Jack can't eat spicy because he gets heartburn and dies (like me)  
> Jack refuses to play as the USA in the Civilization games, leading to some choice moments when he played Australia, Malta, and, somehow, the Easter Islands before settling as Monaco as his country of choice when playing against Hana (It's the future I assume there's lots of choices in the next rounds of games)
> 
> * * *
> 
> [Personal Tumblr](http://happyleech.tumblr.com/) / [Overwatch Tumblr](http://over-swatch.tumblr.com/) / [TextsFromLastNight Overwatch Tumblr](http://textsfromwatchpointgibraltar.tumblr.com/)


End file.
